I adore Smiling Friends and it is one of the best shows to come out of Adult Swim for a long time now. It’s a great absurd cartoon with a mishmash of visual styles. There is some fun animation and it ranges from the hilariously simplistic to the very complicated – but it all works really well together.

As for the main reason I like the show, it’s the dialogue. I am more of a writer than an artist, so I just love hearing character lines and conversations because they feel so real. My favorite episode is still the one where they go to Brazil and are stuck in the airport, trying to figure out what to do. The dialogue is just so natural and can feel heavily improvised. You get these moments of absurdity in an episode, juxtaposed with statements that sound like something I’ve heard out of my friend circles.

Smiling Friends is real good stuff. My favorite character is Alan, the red guy.

Smiling Fight 64

Anyway, as I had mentioned at the top of the sketchbook post, the drawing composition I went with for this Smiling Friends art reminded me of game box art. Something like a mascot fighter like Super Smash Bros.

So… that is what I decided to run with as a little photobash element. Pretty basic but has that late 1980s licensed game feel to it. A horribly misguided licensed game. You know that without the M-rating it’s not going to be as good.

Anyway, some credit: The Smiling Fight 64 logo is a bash of the official Smiling Friends logo, and the font HVD Steinzeit. Additionally, I used two box art sources. The first was located here, while the second was located here.

Anyway, with that gag done, here is the full art you’re looking for.

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #006 – Smiling Friends appeared first on hpkomics.com.

For now, though, take a look at the illustration for this week’s sketchbook.

The Errant Apprentice is a concept my buddy Kevin Hayman, who I do a podcast with, has been working on for a long, long time now. It’s just like any of us creators posting these things online, they have been cooking for a long time. The general concept is a post-1970s emergence of real magic and creatures into the world in the form of “Fantastics” and the reemergence of Rome as a central power in the world. Inevitably this leads to the return of knights and the introduction of mages. The webnovel is set in Mississippi and introduces a contemporary America with all of the old tensions of the U.S. South, but now with goblins and dragons, and a religious conspiracy.

The first book is The Errant Apprentice – Book One: Mo Ghile Mear. It follows a knight errant named Terry Lingal, who is a fantastic protagonist. Kevin has created a modern day Arthurian knight out of a shy, honest, and broken kid from of Mississippi. Terry is charming and noble – kind of like a human Labrador Retriever. Sometimes you just want to stare into his eyes and tell him to “wake up, dumbass.”

And, like all fantasy epics, he has a destiny before him. Please make sure you give it a read. The book has done a lot to develop Terry in comparison to the original comic. I had followed the original comic, of course.

Watching The Errant Apprentice Grow

You can still find over 700 pages of the original comic online, but the current version of The Errant Apprentice is greatly expanded. I have known Kevin for a long time. More than twenty years, in fact. I knew him before he already started making the comic, and long before he started writing this novel. This isn’t even the first time I’ve drawn Terry Lingal, either.

Here is an older drawing, one of many. it is still pretty moody, too. Must be like, a decade old at this point.

It’s been fascinating to see the concept evolve over time. I am extremely excited that this current prose-based version feels like Kevin really finding his voice for the concept. He’s used the unfinished comic as a framework and greatly expanded the world with plenty of depth and nuance. It has been a pleasure to read it anew and occasionally provide advice.

Hell, I’ve even declined reading early chapters of his spinoff novel, Goblin Bistro, simply because I find everything so compelling.

Anyway, please be sure to check out his work and support him on Patreon. Here is the Terry Lingal key art without the sketchbook format:

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #005 – Terry Lingal appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Anyway, here is… the creature toy that is all the rage right now. My wife loves it. Also, in case you missed the last sketchbook post, long ears seems to be the current theme.

Some people have a straight up hatred for these things, which I find silly.

First off, I do think the general idea of the Labubu is cute. The design reminds me of the creatures from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, only by way of kawaiification. Second, they are like any other fad. There is something in human nature where a thing makes a lot of money and seemingly sweeps in from nowhere that causes people to rage. Probably sour grapes. Give it next year and I think Labubu products won’t be as a big of a thing, as we’ll have collectively moved onto something else. For now, just let people enjoy things, humbugs.

In any case, this little thing was fun to draw, but I did mess up one detail. Real Labubu dolls/figures have nine teeth showing. I only drew eight. It happens. It’s technically a knock-off now.

In any case, to the illustrator who created the Labubu character, Kasing Lung, I genuinely wish you get that bag and you make so much money off of these things. You nailed the collectable character vibe.

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #004 – Labubu appeared first on hpkomics.com.

So yeah, here is the main character, Lauren Ipsum herself. I really love the classic cartooning look of this character, and the overall comic. It has always given me a warm, nostalgic feeling. I grew up reading a lot of newspaper comics as a kid, and I feel like Brubaker’s work would have fit right in alongside some of the comics I loved.

The other thing that I think makes Lauren a good cartoon character is that she is easy to draw. I do not mean that in any dismissive way, rather, the shape language is very strong and you know right away as you draw the character that you’re on the right track or not. The overbite and the ears are particularly key in the look, I found. When I was happy with those I felt I was on the right path.

As always, here is the key art without the sketch. Charles, if you are checking this out, let me know if you want to full resolution image.

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #003 – Lauren Ipsum appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Today I can share the hard work of everyone involved with the project as the official release is available. You can visit the Sonic The Comic Reillustrated project site to download the PDF or read the whole comic online at the official Tumblr account.

You can also check out this post by Lew Stringer, author of that run of Sonic The Comic, who has some kind words regarding the fan project.

As for my specific contribution, you can see my panel on page one of part three. You can also see my version versus the original below.

I am definitely looking forward to participating on another one of these Sonic fan projects! I’m no stranger to drawing the character.

If you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post Release: Sonic The Comic Reillustrated #5 appeared first on hpkomics.com.

It’s been quite a while since I updated the sketchbook here on the site. I feel bad about it, but the reality is, I was dealing with a lack of motivation and time, which makes this stuff hard to do. My transition to full time teaching, and all the associated work involved in that transition, ate up a lot of my time.

I ultimately feel like I need to train myself to draw again. So, inspired by a recent post I wrote, it was time to draw the iconic Art the Clown from Terrifier.

I ended up choosing Art the Clown as a subject because, well, the character has a very distinct facial structure. I mean, just look at him!

He seemed like he would be fun to draw, and he very much was. It’s a lot of sharp features, which I enjoy in clown characters because it can be creepy. I also love horror, if that wasn’t clear based on 90% of the material posted on my site.

Really, though, this is me just trying to loosen up and get back into drawing regularly. On that note, keep me going. I’ll take the first five suggestions posted in the comments (one request per commenter, please) and I’ll give it a spin.

Thanks for checking out the work!

The post 2025 Sketchbook #032 – Art the Clown appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Sonic is a great character in a fun setting, with a fantastic supporting cast, and I’d love to work with it all one day professionally. Until then, I can dabble in art and fan projects.

Speaking of which, I recently participated in a fan project called Sonic The Comic Reillustrated. I signed up and was given a panel to redraw from the original comic, which you can see here. It was panel 4 of page 3, featuring Dr. Robotnik.

So, if you’re interested in the Sonic The Comic Reillustrated issue, be sure to visit the official website so you can read the story and see where my panel fits into all this chaos.

If you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post Sonic The Comic Reillustrated #4 is out, and I helped! appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Here are the three leads: Yellow Guy, Red Guy, and Duck.

I drew the characters in my usual line art style, colored the line art, and then added several textures and layer styles over the initial image. This was meant to give the image a bit of an unsettling tone like the series evokes. I had a lot of fun doing this. The document was around 12 to 15 layers in Photoshop, including archival layers.

I think Yellow Guy turned out the best, though I feel I did a decent enough of getting the string texture down on Red Guy without drawing hundreds of individual strands. The mustache element was inspired by the way he was drawn in a 2D segment of the “Transportation” episode.

Anyway, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2025 Sketchbook #028 – Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared appeared first on hpkomics.com.

It has been quite a while since I drew the character, but I have always enjoyed drawing him. Sonic was a character I grew up with and I still like quite a bit.

Not much to say on this one, I wasn’t aiming for a specific art style or to emulate the look of a certain Sonic the Hedgehog game. This is just me thinking about how I would draw the character. And yes, I know there is going to be somewhat upset that I did not make his arms tan-colored. I did so originally, but I prefer the blue fur on his arms. It’s just my preference here.

Gotta go fast. Here is the art without the background. I don’t do this for all my sketchbook items.

I am perfectly happy to draw Sonic fan characters if people have them. If you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2025 Sketchbook #015 – Sonic the Hedgehog appeared first on hpkomics.com.

As far as I am concerned, Bart Simpson is among the most difficult characters ever to draw.

Anyway, there is my attempt at the early ’90s bad boy. I feel I am close, but having not drawn this character in years, maybe a decade or more, I am sure there are elements I can improve on. But again, I am close. Maybe it’s at least close enough for Bongo Comics if they were still around, of course.

Anyway, I still enjoy The Simpsons. It was fun to draw this classic character. I will need to draw Homer at some point, he’s my favorite character. But here is Bart, for now.

If you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2025 Sketchbook #013 – Die Bart Die appeared first on hpkomics.com.